Civilisation?

Written in pen and paper, date unknown.

Hadn’t seen a soul since yesterday morning (apart from Marco, obviously) and it was time to do the track up to Caiguna. The optimism was high, the car started, thankfully (as it almost didn’t when we left Norseman) and off we went, 7:30am, let’s make it to Caiguna before dark, easy. The track got pretty scary at times, the Italian style driving didn’t help. Rocks, sand, rocks, sand, rocks, sand. And plenty of dust – dust anybody? No.

We had seen three (tre) graves of the telegraph masters, all called John! We ended up taking the wrong track and got to a beach we never intended to reach, there was an old tv there, broken; this place is in the middle of nowhere, you have to understand it took us ages to get to on a 4wd only track – WHO DOES THAT? Crazies! Once we got back on track we followed the old telegraph line along to the cliff edge. We reached Toolinna Cove after I had a ride on the bed in the back of the car, which was much fun, luckily that was well before the car started to lose control, luckily Marco corrected it, I did get it on video although it’s less dramatic on video.

 

Toolinna Cove was very beautiful, but we were on top of the clidd and couldn’t get down to the beach without a death-defying jump, forget that! Upon leaving the cove we had to find the right track, which proved tricky. We’d barely even seen wildlife, bar some bugs and the occasional bird. Towards dusk we were on kangaroo watch, not that we’d seen any up to now. After a while Marco squawks, “look at that massive kangaroo”, it was almost as funny as him stopping to take a picture of a big lizard that turned out to be a stick! These were camels! Wild camels, about ten maybe, they obviously got spooked by the car as they ran away in front of us, following the track. Can’t ever say I’ve seen a camel run, it was pretty funny, we caught it on video too.

 

We’d still not made it to Caiguna and it was starting to get dark, we’ve not yet adjusted to early rising and sleeping with the sun, yet more track to go then just like magic Caiguna appeared, we stayed the night and you’ll never guess who arrived an hour after us? Three of the cars we were supposed to have travelled with, it was nice meeting them but I didn’t stick around long as I was exhausted. In the morning we went and had breakfast by a not-so-blowy blowhole, apparently there are loads along the Nullarbor. Once our stomachs were happy it was fuel and back on to Twilight Cove and the bird observatory. Have to admit, I enjoyed driving the car, briefly so, it lived up to my life long desire to drive a 4x4 and fuelled the desire, although he refuses to let me drive his baby, off-road, which I’m totally happy with – not my responsibility, therefore any damage is his problem, like the Russian’s would say “not my circus; not my monkeys!”